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Friday, October 8, 2004

37,526 words and hurting legs

BOOK UPDATE: I have contacted a literary agent about my book. I did that on Wednesday and, not surprisingly, I have yet to hear back from her. I would say that the odds of all things falling into place on my first attempt are bewilderingly low, but I'll keep you posted.
Next week, I am taking leave of my benevolent employer for a full week to be able to focus on writing the book. I will probably do the same thing again in December.

And if the book I'm working on doesn't pan out, there's always this gig.

I cycled to work again today. I am so much better than you. Just admit it.
Although, I moved a little slower than in previous trips. With the Scottish country dancing on Monday, and running Tuesday and Thursday, my legs are a tad weary. How's that for an exciting blog note? I'm sure there are literally thousands of people all across the globe who are twisted up in knots wondering about the state of my leg muscles.
They're tired, my peoples (said in Terry Wogan stylee), but I shall carry on.

I will also stock plenty of beer for the match between England and Wales on Saturday.
While I am wearing my Wales jersey as I write this, I will confess to supporting England when they face other opponents. And considering Wales' failure to convincingly defeat Northern Ireland, I'm inclined to believe our chances of success against Engerlund aren't so good. Nonetheless, I imagine the mood will be electric. Hopefully the match will be as good as the atmosphere.
I'm sure my refusal to despise England will strike me from Cheeky Squirrel's list of potential blog-sitters.

And I'll be jinxing this game by keeping track of it. Even though the Twins play at home and the guy who works the fans* at the Metrodome will be on his toes, the pitching staff is tired and Minnesota has a proud sports tradition of falling apart in the playoffs; the NorthStars used to do it, the Vikings do it, the Timberwolves do it, the Gophers do it (oh, Lord, do they do it).
But, then, the Twins have been the most successful at overcoming playoff jitters. I still have my homer hanky from 1991. If anyone needs me, I'll be rocking back and forth in the corner, singing the Minnesota Twins theme song**:
"We're gonna win, Twins, we're gonna score. We're gonna win, Twins, watch that baseball soar."
I may have those lyrics a bit wrong, I wrote them from memory and there is no reference to them on the official Twins site. Although, I did discover -- to my surprise -- that our mascot*** appears to be the Hamm's bear.

I normally wouldn't link to an "Aah, isn't that cute?"-type story, but I will to this one because it's cute in a strange way.

"When a child laughs, usually they smile, they close their eyes. His wasn't a warm laugh -- his almost had a chill to it" -- It was the uncontrolled, maniacal laughter of pure evil!!!
OK, kinda sorta evil.

It would appear that officials in Ohio's state government don't care about science.

A friend of mine went to Scotland recently and brought me back a Kinder Surprise egg. They don't sell these in the United States, of course, because candy with a toy inside would inevitably choke to death half a generation of young Americans.

*The Metrodome is a covered stadium that looks like a pan of JiffyPop. Its roof is held up by air pressure, and opposing teams have occasionally sworn that the massive fans used to keep the roof up have been turned on or adjusted to affect play.

**There is also such a thing as the "Minnesota Twins Polka." My marching band stood outside Hubert Humphrey Terminal in 1991 and waited five hours to play it for the Twins as they got off their plane.

***James Landeros, if you are reading this, please tell your story of Crabby, the San Francisco Giants mascot, in the comments field.

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Who's writing this?

Hola. I'm Chris Cope, author of the books The Way Forward and Cwrw am Ddim. I'm originally from Austin, Texas, but through a series of terrible and wonderful events called "life," I now reside in Her Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland -- specifically the bit that is Penarth, Wales. Occasionally I write things.